Since they’re not getting the T-Roc, they’ll make their own.
Volkswagen’s really struck a chord with its new T-Roc compact SUV, a car that’s garnered such strong demand that Wolfsburg is struggling to keep up. The German marque has made it clear that, for the time being, production of the T-Roc would remain in Europe. That has not only resulted in a delayed arrival of the model on our shores, but it’s seen the Chinese market iced out altogether.
Not one to be denied, the Chinese division of Volkswagen have decided to take the autonomy available to them through Volkswagen’s market-dependent strategy, and have this week released this, the T-Rocstar concept. Like the T-Roc, the Rocstar is built off of the marque’s MQB platform which also underpins the Golf hatchback, and serves as a stand-in for the T-Roc that the Chinese market won’t get.
“The T-Rocstar concept is a conceptual bridge between the European T-Roc SUV that was launched in September, and a China-specific version that is scheduled for market launch in the summer of 2018.” — Dr. Stephan Wolfenstein, CEO, Volkswagen Passenger Cars China
The T-Roc bears more than a passing resemblance to the T-Roc for good reason, though specific elements have been revised to make it a little bit more appealing to the Chinese market. They’re more focused towards mature, luxurious designs rather than ones that stand out, and so the Rocstar ditches the distinctive LED daytime running lights of the T-Roc in exchange for simpler, neater ones that sit in a redesigned lower front bumper space.
*Foreign market T-Roc 4Motion pictured
Size-wise, the T-Rocstar measures in similarly to the production T-Roc and the Golf hatch, though the Rocstar is some 20mm wider than its European sibling, thanks to some flared wheel arches. It’s not clear what powertrains will make it to the production Rocstar, though its safe to assume that it won’t stray too far from the present offerings in the Golf hatch.
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